August is empty
Like most of Southern Europe, Spain takes its holidays in August, and seriously. A lot of the shops are closed at the moment with signs in the windows saying ‘closed for holidays, back on the 2nd of September’ or some similar date. I can’t imagine that happening too much in the UK, especially not in, say, the principal city of a county. Some of my students have said it’s evidence of Spain’s culture of laziness, or it’s backwardness, but usually after we discuss things like holidays and lunch hours (or the lunch 19 minutes last time I looked) they end up not really wanting to head down the English route. When you calculate it properly, most Spaniards have similar annual holidays to the UK, 25 days or so, some more, some less, it’s just that they take them all in August.
I like it, it says to me that there are more important things for these folk than working every day, that a month on the beach, in the country, with family or friends is essential.
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Ha – that’s because they are all here in Chamonix!